Every Wednesday, I have one of these when I come into the office. It’s the only time I’d have a chocolate bicky. My favourite is always this – the “Wagon Wheel”.

It was a short working week last week, with Tress and I having taken an additional day on top of the King’s Birthday long weekend. The 3-day working week didn’t necessarily mean less work. It simply meant the work had to be done in 3 days instead of 5. So we were washed out at the end of the week. At least I did. I felt spent.

I didn’t do anything about our usual Friday night end of working week dinner but Jason pinged us to ask if we wanted to go out so we caught up with them at Enrik’s near our home. We had a good time catching up over dinner and while we talked about recent events that soaked up our bandwidth – viz., Sammi’s (and Brendan’s) impending move to HK and Kiddo and Mic’s adventures with Abigail – we also talked about patching things up with people from our past. I said to Jason I had caught up with Tham Fuan and David a little while ago and we talked about him and Tham Fuan. Mel said something about the other side still not reaching out to apologise and Jason said the same. I guess they remain a little distant from any chances of reconciliation at this point in time. I asked them to think about reaching out regardless of who’s “at fault” and who needs to be apologising, I mentioned something about Jesus coming down – reaching out to us – while we were still sinners, while we were rebelling against Him. We ought to be like Jesus and reach out even if the other side appears to be at fault. I guess it is easier said than done, particularly for someone like me who was significantly more removed from the hurting events, compared to what happened to Jason and Mel. I guess all there is to do, at this point in time, is to pray. I hope the seeds have been sown and they’d start to think about reaching out. Or maybe Tham Fuan will…

On Saturday morning, I said to Tress that we need to be just resting and not be caught up with house chores. We just needed to rest. I did. So after taking the little one for our usual weekend walk, we just idled around, did some grocery shopping in an unhurried manner, then went for lunch, where we bumped into John and Siew, our friends from St Alf’s. We talked and they told us about their work with a growing Asian community at St Alf’s. Later that arvo, we came back and I took the car for a wash as Tress prepped the boys’ food. All that talk about rest had to be qualified as the car, having gone through a return trip on the Hume to and from Canberra, was grimy and was begging for a wash. A few dollars later at the DIY car wash place on Burwood HIghway, the car looked far less yucky but the rains that night threatened to mess things up. The next morning, the problem wasn’t a dirty or wet car but one with a flat. The rear right tyre was flattened as we were about to leave for St Alf’s. We took it to the servo, filled up all tyres, but came back to swap cars before going to St Alf’s arriving the latest we have ever done since we started at St Alf’s a little over 10 years ago…

The rest of the arvo on Sunday was more the usual things – lunch, cooking and bringing the boys for their walks.

I have been following the first Ashes Test in the UK since the middle of the week. It has been a fascinating test match, with Ben Stokes’ “Bazball” version of test cricket cranking up the usually dour tones of test cricket. Last night, as rains interrupted play on the third day, England had a slender lead of some 20 runs and the Aussies took a couple of early wickets to remove both English openers in their second innings. The match remains evenly poised and so provides a lot of excitement.

This morning it poured so I headed to the gym for my weekday run. I had joined the local Club Lime gym precisely to deal with conditions such as were presented this morning. I much prefer going for a run around the neighbourhood, running through roads and bushland and parks, but the winter rains often make this a challenge. I hope I’m allowed to “go soft” and head for the gym occasionally. Lest I feel washed out much earlier in the week.

Tress and I went up for another “Meet Abby” trip, over the King’s Birthday long weekend. It’s the first King’s Birthday, since Charles’ coronation and it was a public holiday, just as it had been with the Queen’s Birthday. Tress and I each took an additional day off. We left home on Saturday morning, and got into Canberra just after 4pm. We stayed in an AirBnB place in Chapman, not far from the place we stayed in when we came to welcome Abby.

After unpacking and walking the little guy, we hurried to Kiddo and Mic’s place and caught up with them and Abby. We brought the little guy along for the long drive but left the older one with Heather, as the place we stayed in has numerous steep and uneven steps and we thought getting him in and out for anything and everything was going to be a hassle. I think we made the right decision. Chapman is a beautiful suburb in Canberra and is fast becoming my favourite but it is perched on very steep grounds.

We spent about a couple of hours with the young family at their home, and within just a few short minutes, I felt the long drive up the Hume was worth every km/minute. We continued to spend most of our time with them over the next couple of days, soaking up every minute we could get with the beautiful 3 month old. On Tuesday morning, when we had breakfast with Kiddo and Abby (Mic was working and also had to be at home to attend to a pest control person), we lingered as long as possible, stretching the time we got to spend with them, before leaving to return to Melbourne.

As we got in to Melbourne and pulled up to our driveway late in the evening, my tired body was soothed by the gratitude I felt for having spent the long weekend with our very lovely granddaughter. We can’t wait for the next time we visit,

I’ve been saying to Tress, that I’m tired. I sense that many are, most of the time. There could be a range of reasons why I, like many, increasingly feel this way. I’m a bit schizophrenic about having a “smart” watch that tells me my sleep score. Often, it helps to know my body has had a good night’s sleep but sometimes, it adds to the stress of thinking I could do better,

Last Friday night, other than feeling tired, I just couldn’t think of going anywhere for our usual Friday night dinner. Our usual places have been pretty ordinary lately, and with prices going up substantially, I’m starting to think “why bother”. It can be fun, and even relaxing, to just chill out at home and cook something nice to finish the week.

So I picked up a nice piece of steak from Forest HIll Chase, along with a beautiful piece of fish for Tress, and some broccolini, salad kit and some ice cream and cheese. Tress toasted some walnuts to go with/add to the salad kit, I washed the broccolini and prepped it along with the steak and fish, and cooked it on a cast iron grill pan on the stove top. I had a glass of a decent red in hand as I did all that, and got Alexa to play some beautiful music. I had pieces from Verdi’s Nabucco, a few from Gilbert & Sullivan and let Alexa take me on detours after that.

The home cooked “Thank God It’s Friday” meal at home turned out very well. Sure I had to clean up after, but with a right mindset, that too became relaxing and enjoyable. It also cost us only a fraction of what that same meal would have cost us had we gone out. I think I also slept better that night…

On Saturday, we took the younger fellow for a walk, came home and pottered around with some cleaning and then headed out for some grocery shopping. We then headed to Brandon Park for a spot of Malaysian food for lunch, where we bumped into Jason and Mel and Raymond, one of their hometown buddies. We sat down and chatted over some very good Malaysian lunch (nasi lemak and pan-mee and a curry puff). Sammi, Jason and Mel’s daughter, will be heading to Hong Kong soon for work. It could be for a little while. Raymond had worked in Hong Kong for years so they lined up some folks to lend some support when Sammi and Brandon, her husband, head there in July.

After lunch, we came home and I swept up the leaves that had littered our lawns. Autumn is officially over, but our neighbour’s ornamental pears and our own Japonica don’t know that and continued to shed. We then walked the little fellow again before settling down for the night.

Tress and I have been watching the “Ten Pound Poms” series on Stan, so we continued with that. We then went to bed but about an hour and a half later, I woke up to catch the FA Cup Final. I had barely settled down on the couch when I saw the score is already 1-0 for Man City. They had scored one of the fastest goals in FA Cup Final history. Man Utd equalised via a penalty about half an hour later but City was just too good. The quality of players on their team are better and while United put up a decent fight, City prevailed in the end, coming up 2-1 in the end, to lift the second trophy of their treble chasing season (they’d won the League earlier last week). 24 years after United’s own historic treble, it looks like City would repeat the feat. The Champions League is the last hurdle but Inter Milan looks like they would be outclassed by this very good and classy City side that Guardiola has assembled.

After the final whistle, I went back to bed a little after 2am, and Sunday felt a bit groggy as a result. I was reminded on why I have stopped following English soccer. Other than AFL being just as exciting (if not more) the time difference just makes it weird for one to follow that code in that part of the world. It took a while on Sunday morning before I could settle down during the service at St Alf’s. Lauren Weatherlake delivered a very crisp and really good closing sermon on the Deuteronomy series and there was a “rotating lunch” after that so there was no morning tea. Tress and I had attended a “rotating dinner” several years ago (also at St Alf’s) and it was very enjoyable but as we’d be away next weekend, we thought we’d skip this lunch, which would have taken several hours.

We went to Box Hill and wandered around looking for a place to eat. Many places levy a “Sunday surcharge” these days, and we walked into easily half a dozen of these places. We walked straight out each time. Prices have already become expensive and these surcharge make it a very unpleasant experience. We eventually settled in “Malay Kitchen”, which had very good food and didn’t levy that surcharge. I have a feeling though, that this dreaded surcharge would soon become a norm and we’d have to either suck it up or just eat out less on Sundays. Or maybe go to a food court or something like that.

Later that arvo, Tress and I did the usual cook for our lunches, then ducked out to get a few bottles of red (the wine rack has looked empty for a while) and filled the Mazda with enough fuel to get us through the week, before we fill her up fully for that trip up north next weekend. We then came home, walked the boys, and then watched the rest of the Poms’ series. Theirs were stories of woes and strives of English migrants in 1950s and they were not unlike many of the stories we hear and lived as we, along with other migrants of the later waves, ride the waves of settling in a new country. I said to Tress it’s often not racism that’s the problem (unlike what many choose to think). It’s just a common human story. We tend to treat people who are not like us, differently. We have to consciously modify this behaviour and it becomes easier when we see this as a humanity issue, as opposed to a racial one.

Just before I started my run this morning, my “smart” watch told me my sleep score last night was “90”. I did feel more rested, Monday morning notwithstanding.